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Sarah Schlesinger:View
Sarah Schlesinger:View
2023
Signed on reverse
Oil on canvas
17 x 35 inches
Detail from ‘View’
Sarah Schlesinger’s landscape paintings seek to challenge the viewer in the act of looking, evoking the notion of longing, while simultaneously denying the possibility of satisfaction by creating obscured views of landscapes that are just out of reach.
The artist seeks to undermine the traditional structure of foreground, middle ground and distance in her work. View depicts a horizon line which edges off towards the top of the canvas; the viewer is confronted by a muscular, inky expanse of sea that fills the picture plane. Through a deft handling of colour, nuanced tonal shifts register the form of the undulating water, creating a landscape that is at once peaceful and dynamic.
Schlesinger’s landscapes are fictional, though informed by painting en plein air in Massachusetts. View emits a soft, silvery glow, evocative of moonlight that remains just out of view. These evocations expand the scene beyond the limit of the canvas, and allow the viewer to question the limitless possibilities of the landscape. Schlesinger uses the reflective nature of the water to create a call and response with the greenish, blue sky, used to unite the composition.
THE STUDIO
B. United States1988
Biography
Often working on a small scale, Sarah Schlesinger paints obstructed landscapes. Blocked by objects, such as bushes and other obfuscations, she creates scenes that are filled with metaphor and mystery, exploring the psychology of looking. Using a monochromatic palette, Schlesinger works on panel are an investigation of colour and form.
Sarah Schlesinger (born 1988) received her BFA from Taylor University in 2010, before graduating with an MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2015. She is a recipient of a 2015 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, and the 2015-2016 Chubb Postgraduate Fellowship at New York Academy of Art. Schlesinger’s work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Oslo, Brussels and Mexico City among others.
Schlesinger lives and works in New York.